On Starting from Scratch – Part I

Starting out on a small, self-owned business isn’t all that hard. 

Yes, it takes a serious lack of addiction to easy salary, high levels of commitment to what one believes in, a strong desire to live life on one’s own terms, and a small pinch of madness to be able to kick the posterior of the 9-to-8 monster of a job.

And I am nowhere close to mere preaching. Yes, I have actually done it! I have gone and started my own little gig at 42. And what follows is experience talking in person.

Stand up and be counted

Life is about much more than slaving at a desk all day and being unable to do much more than what those guys would have you do. Amazingly enough, I have seen corporate environments where your motivation to do more and better does not count.

By the dint of your expertise and experience, you tried to prove to the management that you were the better person to handle your particular department. You also did it without offending anyone. But the management wanted its own old hand to manage it for reasons of their own. Well, all the very best to them all, you say, and cheerfully bid them adieu and leave them to their own devices.

It’s now time to show them the Maker’s name. So grant yourself a couple of months’ holiday, then up the ante – big time.

Get that free website or WordPress blog or the small, local outlet and give it all you have. Agreed, you may not make it big anytime soon. You may even need to subsist on bare minimum for a while. But be aware that none of it is bad, not at all. If you trust in the value of what you have to offer, rest assured that the world wants it.

The world is such a lovely, greedy place, it wants everything that’s done or made really well. Doing or making it well is important. Providing the highest value has the potential to bring roaring business and blast the competition out of the water.

For some time after I started out on my own, I met only people who wanted to take advantage of my situation. I just gave them my smiles and kept chipping away at my blog and website.

For a worryingly long amount of time, I did nothing that directly brought any money. But I was confident that one day I would make it big enough to not just pay my bills but also do more in the interests of the family, friends, and the rest of the society.

Regardless of the outcome of my decision however, I am unlikely to have any future regrets. I want to do my own thing, period. My family needs me to be physically and mentally there for them. My daughter will be in the eighth grade next year. I need to provide coaching to her to equip her for her future.

To cut a long story short, I have priorities far bigger than a job. The prospect of starting out on one’s own is very attractive.

You can easily list your own reasons. I’d love to hear of them and the chance to talk to you, dear reader!

For sure, there will be challenges galore. But what’s a fight without a worthy opponent?

The upshot of everything is that life – and your priorities in it – come first.